Libre Endowment Fund

« Sustainable Development of Free Software »

In supporting long term maintenance of essential and mature Free Software as well as short term development of any generic Free Software, FDL sponsorship fits in the gap between public R&D funding and private system integration funding.

The libre endowment fond (FDL) and its sister association l'Association pour le web libre (AWL) are two association created based on the "Loi de 1901". This means that organisations and institutions can donate up to 0.5 of revenues from which up to 60% are tax deductable to either association. Funds and earned interest can be used to either sponsor the long-term maintenance of essential Free Software solutions or short-term feature development. A scientific committee is in charge of evaluating projects that can submitted following a process outlined on this website. Organisations and institutions wishing to ensure support, maintenance and continuous development of mission critical free software can use FDL and AWL to offset some of the associated cost while also being able to influence the long-term roadmaps of utilised software solutions.

Aside from supporting Free Software solutions, the FDL also aims to increase the visibility of European Free Software publishers and their importance in terms of innovation and employment as well as their contribution to a possible European technological sovereignty. With microsites like the European Free Software Publisher directory afs.one or its critical analysis of ongoing initiatives such as the Gaia-X project, the FDL hopes to have a positive impact on awareness and potential impact of deploying Free Software solutions in organisations and institutions.